Using a string from a list to select a column in R

Question

I have a list of variable names and I want to use the strings from the list to access columns in data frames

list<-list("Var1", "Var2", "Var3")
df1 <- data.frame("Var1" = 1:2, "Var2" = c(21,15), "Var3" = c(10,9))
df2<- data.frame("Var1" = 1, "Var2" = 16, "Var3" = 8)

I have 2 uneven data frames and I want to create a new column by doing some basic maths

df1$Var4<-df1$Var1 + df2$Var1

Var4
2
3

But i want to be able to call the column names i'm adding together by refering to the list of variables names I have, I have tried the two following pieces of code by neither worked

df1$Var4<- df1$List[1]+df1$list[1]

and 

Z<-list[1]
df1$Var4 <- df1$Z + df2$Z

I don't want to hard code the column names because this will be creating a function to be used across data frames where the variable names will change

Any help would be much appreciated

@Henrik I think it's related, but not really a dupe as you cannot completely answer this question based on the linked one. — tmfmnk, Jul 22 '20 at 13:45
You may be right @tmfmnk. But I think it's worth linking to, because the _core problem_ of the question is answered in the canonical post. Cheers. — Henrik, Jul 22 '20 at 13:53

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 22 '20 at 13:12

7

Try this:

list<-list("Var1", "Var2", "Var3")
df1 <- data.frame("Var1" = 1:2, "Var2" = c(21,15), "Var3" = c(10,9))
df2<- data.frame("Var1" = 1, "Var2" = 16, "Var3" = 8)
#Sum
df1$Var4<- df1[,list[[1]]]+df2[,list[[1]]]

  Var1 Var2 Var3 Var4
1    1   21   10    2
2    2   15    9    3

answered Jul 22 '20 at 13:12

Duck

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Thank you for that, knew someone would have an easy answer I was missing – Dave Matteo Jul 22 '20 at 21:57

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 22 '20 at 13:34

To follow up with the reasoning to Duck's obviously correct answer, your approach isn't working for two reasons:

The $ operator does "not allow computed indices", so you can't pass a character vector to it. See help(`$`).

`$`(df1,"Var1")
#[1] 1 2

`$`(df1,list[[1]])
#Error in df1$list[[1]] : invalid subscript type 'language'

You were trying to subset df1 with a list. You need a character vector.

list[1]
#[[1]]
#[1] "Var1"

class(list[1])
#[1] "list"

The [[ operator selects an individual element from a list. In this case, the character vector you needed.

list[[1]]
#[1] "Var1"

class(list[[1]])
#[1] "character"

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 22 '20 at 13:32

2

You can try the code below

df1$Var4 <- Map(`+`,df1,df2)[[lst[[1]]]]

such that

> df1
  Var1 Var2 Var3 Var4
1    1   21   10    2
2    2   15    9    3

answered Jul 22 '20 at 13:32

ThomasIsCoding

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1

While I like using functional programming, this may not be the best solution time-wise because it will add up _all_ columns and return only the one we need. – slava-kohut Jul 22 '20 at 13:35
@slava-kohut You are right. This is not time-efficient. it's just to show an option – ThomasIsCoding Jul 22 '20 at 13:37
this is fine, I understand – slava-kohut Jul 22 '20 at 13:40

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 22 '20 at 13:39

One option using dplyr could be:

df1 %>%
 mutate(Var4 = c_across(lst[[1]]) + pull(df2, lst[[1]]))

  Var1 Var2 Var3 Var4
1    1   21   10    2
2    2   15    9    3

Or with the addition of purrr:

df1 %>%
 mutate(Var4 = c_across(pluck(lst, 1)) + pull(df2, pluck(lst, 1)))

slava-kohut · Answer 5 · 2020-07-22T13:37:25.663

1

You can simply use strings directly to access column names:

list<-list("Var1", "Var2", "Var3")
df1 <- data.frame("Var1" = 1:2, "Var2" = c(21,15), "Var3" = c(10,9))
df2<- data.frame("Var1" = 1, "Var2" = 16, "Var3" = 8)
df1$Var4 <- df1[[list[[1]]]] + df2[[list[[1]]]]

Output

> df1
  Var1 Var2 Var3 Var4
1    1   21   10    2
2    2   15    9    3

edited Jul 22 '20 at 13:37

answered Jul 22 '20 at 13:32

slava-kohut

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Using a string from a list to select a column in R

5 Answers5